Why Users Are Annoyed at DuckDuckGo's Stance on Disinformation

While DuckDuckGo is trying its best to keep disinformation at a minimum in its search results, most of the users are unhappy at the stance.

DuckDuckGo has announced that it's going to start down-ranking websites associated with "Russian disinformation" following the ongoing war in Ukraine, a decision that has made users extremely unhappy.

You would assume curbing disinformation would make people happy, but it had quite the opposite effect. So, what's exactly happening, and why are users upset with DuckDuckGo? Let's find out.

What's Happening With DuckDuckGo?

On March 10th, DuckDuckGo's Founder and CEO, Gabriel Weinberg, made the announcement on Twitter.

He stated that DuckDuckGo will start downranking sites known for "Russian disinformation." Furthermore, it will start placing modules and information boxes at the top of the search result pages in an effort to lead them to "quality information for rapidly unfolding topics."

The decision has made people unhappy, promising to switch to a different search engine and abandoning DuckDuckGo forever. The Reddit sub dedicated to DuckDuckGo is full of people accusing the company of becoming exactly what it swore to destroy.

Why Are DuckDuckGo Users Unhappy?

The main discord between DuckDuckGo and its users is that the company is no longer standing by its statements from before. For many years, DuckDuckGo has criticized Google for what it dubbed as a "filter bubble."

The filter bubble is powered both by Google tracking its users all over the Internet via cookies and by the algorithms that automatically downgrade websites it deems to be untrustworthy.

One of the main marketing points for DuckDuckGo has been that the search engine would never filter content in its search results, something that has appealed to many people.

One DuckDuckGo user replied to Weinberg's announcement and claimed that the whole point of the service is to "NOT filter out content." However, the CEO hit back, claiming that the whole point of DuckDuckGo is privacy. He added that the search engine must show people more relevant content over "less relevant" content.

Another thing that DuckDuckGo promised to do is provide people with "unbiased search results." One Twitter user unearthed that message and asked where the unbiased search results would be after the latest decision.

However, DuckDuckGo is standing its ground, with the company's Senior Software Engineer Shane Osbourne replying that everyone gets the same results, as they are not based on anything related to personal information.

How to Make Sense of DuckDuckGo's Situation

The crux of the problem here is that users do not trust tech companies to make decisions for them, including pointing out which sources may be untrustworthy.

The latest announcement from DuckDuckGo is seen as a break of trust, especially as users had a specific image for what the search engine was supposed to stand for. Many messages on Reddit and Twitter indicate people feel this is just another form of censorship that has no place on a search engine that promised to hold a neutral position.

Furthermore, the new decision from the search engine shouldn't really come as a surprise, especially as DuckDuckGo has been vocal in condemning acts of disinformation in recent weeks, even going as far as to announce the company was studying ways to "limit the spread of false and misleading information," as reported by The New York Times.

Nonetheless, the biggest stance DuckDuckGo has had, and their main marketing point, is that it is a private search engine, meaning that it will not track users. That remains true, no matter what upset users may claim right now.

DuckDuckGo is not the only platform trying to stay on top of the conflict in Ukraine. Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and many other tech companies have been doing their best to limit sources they believe to be misleading while also blocking the Russian state media from monetizing content.

DuckDuckGo Isn't Your Only Option

On the one hand, we have a company working to keep disinformation at a minimum, while on the other hand, we have users accusing DuckDuckGo of censorship. Which of the two is worse is a complex problem without an easy answer.

Thankfully, even for those looking to switch privacy browsers and search engines, there are loads of options out there.

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